Lower Fens O day and night, but this is wondrous strange

[Theo Crowhurst]

Outfit

Approaching the front door of the building, Theo knew very little of what he might expect. He'd done some digging and knew it as the same building Kuryakin and Tanaka lived in, both who'd had brief brushes with the Exchange. Theo wasn't certain if it was the same apartment, but a look at the list of names on the mailboxes as he pushed inside showed that they both lived together. That explained why Kuryakin had sent Tanaka his way. They knew each other.

As he double checked the apartment numbers, he realised the haunting was connected to the pair. It made his work easier, certainly, knowing both had a certain knowledge of his work. Tanaka was a bigger unknown, but there was nothing to it other than to do it.

Theo stepped to the stairwell, peering upwards and casting a critical eye to the clear signs that this was originally an older warehouse, retrofitted into an apartment block. Brick dominated, with some lime wash, industrial elements that had been maintained for the appearance, but overall the conversion seemed to have been done well.

Making his way up the stairs, Theo scanned the doors for the correct apartment number as he ascended to the top floor. It seemed to only have two apartments on the top floor; the building separated into two sections. Stepping up to the apartment door matching the number he was looking for, he pressed the doorbell once, settling in to wait as he tucked his hands into the pockets of his greatcoat.

[Tanaka Gokiburi]

Outfit

Not expecting visitors that day, Goki was likewise unaware of what he could expect when the doorbell chimed. A package delivery, maybe? A misplaced UberEats? His mom? Maybe it was even someone looking for Max--they'd be out of luck though, since Goki was the only living soul in the apartment. As far as he knew.

As such, he'd taken the liberty of shifting the couch aside to make room in the middle of the living room for some swordplay. He didn't need to do that, considering how large the space was, but better safe than sorry. His wooden bokken wasn't sharp, but it could still do some damage, and he wasn't interested in leaving a divot in the frame of the couch or scratching the fabric with the tip. He'd also brought out his big Bluetooth speaker so he could work out with some upbeat k-pop.

Fortunately, the chime sounded during in a quieter bridge, and didn't meld with the music, making it easy to pick out. Clicking off his music, the man trotted across the apartment with his bokken still in hand, sweating and puffing.

When he opened the door, his expression morphed from a look of furrowed focus to surprise at the sight of, not a package, not his mom, not some wayward and possibly lovelorn friend of Max's, but Theo Crowhurst. He hadn't seen the Inquisitor for a year and change at least, but he could still remember dropping Kairavi off with him. He remembered his relief, mainly, even if he was making the lion someone else's problem. What the hell was he gonna do with a werelion? Put her on his couch?

“Oh,” Goki puffed, propping the bokken on one shoulder. Belatedly, he grinned past the surprise, nodding his head as he looked the well-dressed man up and down. “Hey man, uh... What's up? Can I help you?”

[Theo Crowhurst]

As the door swung open, Goki wasn't the only one caught a little by surprise. Theo's eyes went to the bokken–a tool he was familiar with even if he didn't use it himself–and quirked an interested eyebrow. Fencing clubs were around, but in the grand scheme of things, they weren't that popular, so it wasn't something the Englishman saw all that often. He found a professional interest was sparked at the sight of the training tool, even if Theo did not dabble in the Japanese sword arts.

“I'm here about one of your roommates, I believe,” Theo began, wondering if Tanaka knew or if Kuryakin was the only one in on it. He looked away from studying the bokken, looking at the man. “Priya?”

The Englishman carefully read the man for any reaction as he said the spirit’s name. That would tell him if the man knew or was ignorant of the ghost haunting his apartment. An outcome Theo wouldn’t relish enlightening him about.

[Tanaka Gokiburi]

Goki didn’t miss Theo’s glance at the his practice sword and immediately recognized recognition. The quirked eyebrow suddenly had him burning with his own questions. He enjoyed fighting so much that he was always on the look out for new people to test his skills against. Was the Inquisitor one such person?

For the moment, the big man kept that to himself, knowing the guy probably wasn’t there to challenge him to a sword fight, as awesome as that would be. Instead, his expression was guileless and open as Theo went on. When he mentioned the spirit’s name, he snorted a laugh, unconcerned with secrecy in front of the man who’d had to take a lion lady off his hands.

“Roommate? I think you mean squatter,” he joked as he stepped aside, moving his sword from his shoulder to wave it toward the living roommate and kitchen, inviting Theo inside. Aside from the shifted couch, his laptop still open on one of the sear cushions, and playing a YouTube video of various katas, it was reasonably tidy. He went on, “What’s she done now?”

[Theo Crowhurst]

The laugh was enough for Theo to get the measure of the situation. The man knew. When Tanaka followed with a declaration branding the ghost as a squatter, it further cast some light on it. With the manner being jovial rather than combative, Theo could recognise a joke rather than something he had to take seriously. It made this whole thing far more tolerable, two people living with the spirit who were fully aware, and not upset about it.

With the man stepping aside, Theo entered, casting an eye around the space and finding it an open plan space, although a hallway off the kitchen implied that there were far more rooms than was apparent at first glance. The living room space was... out of order, he had to assume, but the laptop playing drills told him that there was a point to it.

“She called me,” he offered simply, straightforward. He remained by the immediate entryway, not willing to impose if the ghost would not show herself. “She wanted my expertise. Is she... around?” Theo allowed a faint smirk to tug at the corner of his lips, wondering if Naming her might bring her out.

[Tanaka Gokiburi]

Goki led the way from the door into the wide open space, idly swinging the sword in short, low arcs. Enough to make the air whistle, although it was well enough out of the way that he wasn’t swinging at anyone. Besides, it didn’t seem to be a problem, when he turned and found Theo preferred to stay by the door. Maybe the guy was just checking in quickly—made sense, he seemed like a busy man, although it was funny to think he was here to call on a spirit.

Catching the tip of the bokken with his hand, he lifted both eyebrows at the news that Priya had called. “Huh,” he huffed, surprised, before glancing out the window. It was dark enough to be comfortable for her. “I think so? She’s usually out around this time. Priya!” he shouted into the air, tipping his head back and looking around the space.

It was usually a toss up on whether or not Priya appeared when called. It didn’t seem to be a sense of capriciousness on her part, since she seemed to enjoy her time around Max and Goki, so he could only assume she was away. Wherever spirits went when they weren’t haunting the physical world. When the timid girl didn’t materialize, he hummed a soft, disappointed noise.

[Theo Crowhurst]

Theo observed the man as he swung the wooden sword. They were idle swings, almost lazy, but Tanaka held the tool with an ease and confidence that further implied the man knew more than a bit. The moment of study was interrupted as the man tipped his head back, hollering for the spirit.

Hiding an amused smirk under his hand as he scrubbed at his chin. That could work as well as a Naming if the spirit was present at the moment, but when no woman manifested herself in the space after the shout, Theo had to assume she was not technically 'in.' That could be remedied easily enough.

It did not matter how loud you shouted a spirits name, so long as you said it with intent, and the correct form of it, they would feel the pull. So Theo did not need to shout out, instead he spoke her name under his breath, keeping it to himself. He wasn't certain how much Tanaka or Kuryakin knew, but the ghost has not shared it, so neither would Theo.

“Kanupriya Chitre,” he whispered into the space, the sound not carrying beyond the little entrance area.

He said it with the emphasis and intent required of calling a spirit by name, and Theo's own sense of correctness had him pronouncing it the way he'd seen it phonetically spelled out. He knew it wouldn't necessarily be immediate, some resisted on principle, some had forgotten their names and resisted an unknown pull.

The Englishman did not wait impatiently, turning to slip off his coat and hang it. From the bare feet of Tanaka and the shoes resting by the door, this was a shoes off household, so Theo bent to untie his laces and slip his shoes off as well.

[Priya]

Priya had been everywhere and nowhere, her mind scattered across space, if the dream world could be called space. Although she couldn't sleep, it was a kind of rest for the spirit, where she moved in a half-conscious haze through things mostly forgotten. She wasn't certain if the things she saw were memories or notions. If they were hers or someone else's.

She liked to think that the memories of India, hot, humid, and beautiful, were hers. That the taste of mango, the juice dribbling down her chin, was something from her childhood. The dancing, the colorful saris, the smiles of people she knew loved her. But maybe these were all wishes.

Some part of her existed on the sun-warmed flagstones of her grandparents' garden in over-sized flipflops. She was teasing the monkeys perched on the garden wall, offering them yellow starfruits and then snatching them away with a laugh. They chittered angrily. Then, from inside the cool house, she heard her name. Her full name. It pulled at her, as her name ought to.

After throwing the fruits to the monkeys, making them fight, the child Priya turned and ran to the open door. The person that came through the other side was fully-grown, unshod, but wearing a pair of jeans and oversized t-shirt. To her perception, it was a start when she crossed the threshold, it was not the breezy architecture of her grandparent's house that she saw.

Instead, it was the living room of an apartment in Easthaven. The spirit appeared behind Goki, accompanied by the scent of rain-soaked soil and flowers. Beyond her roommate, she spied another man in a suit, taking his shoes off by the door, and knew it had been his voice that beckoned her from the garden. She only knew it in fits and starts over the phone, but the spirit's gaze was drawn straight to Theo.

“What did you call me?” she asked, anxious but intently curious. Her voice made Goki startle and spin to her.

"Don't do that," the big man hissed, taking a step back to give her space. He followed her wide-eyed gaze back to Theo, and then snickered. "Love at first sight?"

“Go away,” Priya said peevishly to Goki, and he laughed, swinging his sword around as he turned and ambled for the kitchen. He touched his forelock to Theo on his way past, clearly understanding when it was his time to dip.

[Theo Crowhurst]

As the spirit appeared, Theo remained unruffled as she startled Tanaka. Her curiosity about what he'd called her confirmed a suspicion that she didn't know her name. Not her full name, at least, but Theo didn't answer her question immediately, tucking his shoes to one side before he stepped further inside the apartment. Tanaka was chased off to the kitchen, but in the open plan living space it didn't give Priya any more privacy.

Not one to involve himself in roommate squabbles, regardless of one of them being dead, he gave Tanaka a nod in acknowledgement as he passed to the living room space. Still in disarray after Tanaka's training, Theo threw the couch a dubious look before turning to face Priya. Once he had her attention, he spoke.

“I called you by your name,” he said simply, cutting a glance to Tanaka's back, before returning his eyes to her. It was a powerful thing to know a spirit's name, so Theo hesitated uttering it in front of the spirit's roommate.

[Priya]

Her name... This meant a lot to the spirit. Priya's eyes went wide, her almost anxious curiosity plain to see, but Theo's glance at Goki where he was rummaging around in the kitchen distracted her. They had very little privacy here, and although she wouldn't have minded the man knowing her name, she didn't want more of Goki's stupid, snide commentary.

While her roommate had his head in the fridge, Priya nodded her head with quick rabbit-like motions, and then whispered, “Come with me.”

Stepping away she started across the living room. The couch was backed up against the base, but they would still be able to get around the disarray to get to the roof access door.

Also next to the bottom of the stairs was squat basket of old slippers, also shunted to one side. Priya pointed at it, knowing the guys liked to use them when they were wandering around the house. For her part, the spirit darted up the stairs without slippers, but waited for Theo at the top, her hand on the door handle. She watched him with a concerned expression, gently chewing her lip.

[Theo Crowhurst]

It was obvious the spirit was eager to hear more, but she seemed to understand his reluctance to speak openly in front of her roommate. An unknown quantity, even if he'd served the Exchange well so far. As she bid him follow, Theo paused for a moment to watch her go before he walked after her. He caught her gesture, spotting the slippers and making the guess that she intended to go somewhere he'd need them. A balcony, maybe?

Theo hooked his fingers in the tongue of a pair that looked large enough for him and dropped them on the floor to slip them on. She'd paused at the top of the stairs, and as Theo stepped up to join her, he took in her concerned appearance, the obvious nerves. He was quite used to that sort of reaction to his appearance, even when he was invited.

“Need a hand?” he murmured, nodding to the door handle. He knew she could pass through it, or most spirits could, but he’d caught on that she was rather intent on leading him around rather than expecting him to follow.

[Priya]

Priya hadn’t expected the offer of help. With new people, the fact that she was intangible most of the time often didn’t sink in right away, so being understood this way was novel.

“Oh-!” she stammered, looking down at her hand and then back at the Inquisitor. Priya smiled, grateful. It saved her the effort of interacting with the physical world. “Ye-yeah, well, I mean- The door is for you. I can just- Yeah. You know that.”

The spirit huffed out a self-conscious laugh and scrubbed her palms on her jeans as if they were sweaty. After she quickly swallowed the sound, Priya gave the man some space to open the door, ducking her head to slip through it and onto the roof.

The evening was cool and getting cooler with the sun going down. The tiny seating area the guys had set up lacked cushions. The thick padding was stored next to the door, safe from the elements under the awning. Setting one up for Theo would be a tremendous effort but she did manage to click the lights on, giving the space a more welcoming glow.

[Theo Crowhurst]

The spirit fumbled, stammering and looking between him and the doorknob, before she seemed to gather herself. The smile she gave him was grateful, even as she stuttered her way through vocalising any meaning. Theo settled on giving her a quirk of a smile, not amused so much as supportive, knowing she was eager for her name and everything else he represented.

After a moment of gathering herself, she finally went through, and Theo reached for the door to open and pass over the threshold himself. On the other side of the door was a balcony of sorts, as he'd suspected, but it didn't take him long to realise it was actually the roof itself, retrofitted to work as a balcony. Without his coat, it was chillier than before, but nothing he couldn't handle.

As Priya clicked on the light, Theo glanced around. The only seating was some wooden garden chairs that looked to be missing their padding, so the Englishman kept to his feet for now. “Your name,” Theo prompted, getting right to it now that they were in private. “I take it you don't remember it properly?”

[Priya]

Despite not feeling the cold, Priya folded her arms around herself, a habitual gesture of self-protection. Theo jumped right to it, and she nodded eagerly, dark eyes wide.

“No, I don't- I don't remember anything,” she said, listening intently. “Why did... Why did that work? I don't remember it n' the guys, they call me all the time, but it never worked like that.”

[Theo Crowhurst]

Theo was not surprised to hear that, inclining his head as Priya spoke. He saw no harm in informing her of what he knew, as she'd shown herself as a harmless ghost to date. If she'd been violent, he'd have kept things closer to the chest.

“Some spirits can be called by their born names,” the Englishman offered. “It can't be a nickname, so simply Priya would not have the same effect. To your benefit, it is generally an advantage to not have it be known by everyone and their dog. I spoke your full name to pull you towards me.”

As he spoke, the Englishman paced to the edge of the roof, peering down only briefly. His eyes were otherwise on the spirit, studying her, his own expression inscrutable.

[Priya]

Priya remained beneath the awning as Theo started investigating the roof. She watched him, latching onto every word--the man was delivering the secrets of the universe, offering her more information about her existence in a sentence than she'd discovered on her own in years.

She had to assume that the power would work anywhere, considering Theo had pulled her to him from nowhere. So, she nodded, understanding the importance of secrecy.

“Well, thank you,” she said softly, clasping her hands together so she wouldn't fidget. “Thank you for coming all the way out here too, when...” she smiled a little, nervous but amused. “When I guess you could've also called me to you.”

She could only assume the Inquisitor was very busy, so it meant a lot that he took the time like this.

[Theo Crowhurst]

Tucking his hands into his pockets, Theo concluded his perusal and turned fully to face the spirit. She was stood beneath the awning, rooted, like she was avoiding being under the vast open sky.

He inclined his head at her words, and explained. “It's rude to call spirits willy nilly, especially out of the spaces they inhabit.” Spirits had feelings and sense much like their living counterparts, and like dealing with fey and other creatures, not being rude was often a key in handling them. “Being pulled out of a space they're attached to can end badly, if the spirit is unstable. Today, I wanted to get a measure of your haunt, as well.”

He'd seen the stain on the wall, had seen marks of attempts of it being painted over, but it hadn't taken. So the supernatural was the most obvious answer, unless the men who lived in the apartment were dirty in specifically that spot, which was more unlikely.

[Priya]

“Oh!” Priya chirped with all the nervous energy of a bird. Fortunately, she wouldn't be calling any spirits, she thought, unaware she'd done it once before in an encounter with Alexius. Still watching the man, she started picking beneath a thumbnail, her metaphorical heart jumping when he mentioned inspecting her haunt.

“Oh,” she said again, the word jumping up high. “So uh- What do you think?”

Even then, she wasn't sure what she was asking. It was almost like she was asking the stupid simple question of what did he think of the apartment, but there had to be something he was looking for. She hadn't expected him to want to check out where she spent her unlife.

[Theo Crowhurst]

Theo arched an amused eyebrow at her chirping, but he'd gathered that she was somewhat inclined towards nerves over the phone. He was rapidly building an image of her as a spirit who didn't know much about the details and various rules around magic and the supernatural. Did it even matter much to a spirit? Beyond being named, and salt, what could hurt them beyond a well placed banishing? Even that didn't always stick.

“The stain on the wall,” he began, gesturing with a hand to the door leading back into the apartment. “That you?”

[Priya]

Theo gestured for the door and Priya half turned to glance behind her at the closed door. A useless move, since she wouldn't be able to see what he was asking about, but the nervous creature was paying very close attention to the man, following his lead.

Talk of the wine stain on the wall inspired another nervous huff of laughter, and she nodded, looking back at the Inquisitor with wide eyes. “Yeah. It fades when I'm out- like, uh- Like this.” She gestured at her manifested form. “I guess it's where I... stay? When I'm not around.”

[Theo Crowhurst]

Theo inclined his head, privately adding that to his long list of reasons for thinking she was bound to the apartment. He'd concluded much the same over the phone, but more evidence only reinforced it. Not isolated to it, at least, as she journeyed through dreams, but certainly seemingly drawn back to it, night after night. He didn't think it was some leftover emotional compulsion, but something lingering more in the magical than the psychosomatic, as far as such applied to ghosts.

He stepped towards the chairs, settling into one despite the lack of cushions. He gestured to the chair's partner, indicating that she should settle down, somehow. “Settle down, however's most comfortable. We have some more consequential things to talk about.” Things they shouldn't be standing around like lemons for. “You asked me to help you with finding answers, on the phone. Do you still want to find out what I've found?”

[Priya]

Priya dropped her hands to her sides, rubbing her palms over her pant legs when Theo told her to settle down. Obediently moving closer, and following the man's lead, she gingerly set herself on the unoccupied chair. More consequential things had her full attention, even if it gave her a shot of dread. That feeling turned out to be quite appropriate when he said he'd found something.

“Yes, thank you,” she said with a soft exhale, though her expression betrayed her reluctance. But this was the sort of thing she needed to hear, and she added forcefully for herself, “That would be good.” The spirit straightened up, pinning her hands palms together between her knees so she wouldn't fidget.

[Theo Crowhurst]

Even the dead could be nervous. The thought privately amused Theo, as he watched the spirit sit and react to his words. Her reluctant expression told of someone who wasn't sure they wanted to know, but had set themselves to know anyway. Oh, he had sympathy for her plight, for certain, but one didn't work a lifetime in his field and not find the odd little moments funny, despite their seriousness.

“Very well,” Theo said, pausing as if giving her one more chance to beg off. He didn't linger for too long, though. “Your name is Kanupriya Chitre, formerly of Baltimore before relocating to Easthaven. A botanist in training. Is any of this familiar?”

[Priya]

Theo went into it like he was ripping a bandaid off. Priya listened and it was a distinctly uncomfortable experience to habitually think he was describing someone else up until he asked if that was familiar. The lack of recognition on her face was the first tell, her thoughts stuttering, processing slowly.

She recognized all the words, all the places, but none of them formed a picture of her, except the name he'd said a few minutes before. It was literally another life, practically another person. She had to shake her head, her eyes going watery as she struggled with this. Rubbing her nostril with a knuckle, she said tremulously, “No, not at all.” Then she waved a hand, frantically adding, “I believe you! It's all just... gone from my head.” She trailed off, letting the reality of a whole life lost and forgotten sink in.

[Theo Crowhurst]

Theo couldn't help the small smile as she scrambled to reassure him. Her inability to remember hadn't bothered him. He'd even partly expected it, but it was worth checking in with her still. That she thought he's be offended... well, spoke to either the personality of the person or how twitchy she was as a ghost. It was hard to get personality profiles when all you had was text on a page.

“Yes, that's not uncommon,” Theo soothed, going for a calm cadence, even if she wasn't panicking. She seemed like she'd respond to that approach better than his usual gruff demeanour. “Don't worry. But, you lived here. In this apartment. That's one reason you're attached to it.” Theo gestured around them, to the apartment through the balcony door, the building.

[Priya]

“Mkay,” Priya breathed out, smiling slightly as Theo's tone gentled. His softer approach had the intended effect, the spirit's shoulders dropping minutely as she leaned in, paying close attention.

Everything he said seemed logical--if she was attached to the place because she'd lived there while alive. It lined up with the claims she'd given Max, saying it was her apartment and that he was living in her room. So that was confirmed, but she did wonder what the other reasons might be. She bit her lip and then ventured hesitantly, “Did I die here too?”

That might explain the wine stain, although the dark smudge itself didn't look like something gruesome, like a head cracking against a hard surface, things she paled to think about. No, rather, it just shadowed the wall with vague shapes that only sometimes resembled anything.

[Theo Crowhurst]

With the spirit relaxing, Theo felt like he wasn't in danger of losing her to her own mind like he had over the phone. It could get hairy to tell a spirit about why they were a spirit and why they were attached to a place. Some refused to take it in, others flew off the handle. It was a sliding scale of human emotions backed with the otherworldly power of the truly intangible melded with magic.

“No, you didn't die here,” Theo answered her, although he paused and corrected himself, knowing he couldn't outright deny it, but he didn't think it was likely. “Or, nothing indicates that you did. There's other things beyond living in a space that might tie you to it. You seem... too stable, here, for it to have been traumatic.”

He knew where the body was found, and a solid guess that it was where she'd been killed too. There were some uncomfortable parallels to other unsolved cases, but he wasn't jumping to conclusions if he could help it. It might be a bit of a lucky break if he could somehow get the ghost to remember something about her killers.

[Priya]

Her eyes were getting wider and wetter as Theo went on, but Priya managed to hold it together. He was touching on the rawest part of her existence, but her need to know what happened was stronger than the desire to start crying.

“Yeah...” she agreed softly, still wrestling with a pit of dread in her stomach. She chewed over the Inquisitor's words carefully, trying to make sense of it all before she asked her next question--she wanted to make the best use of their time together that she could. Although he said she was stable, her days were not consecutive, and although she was better at staying coherent, she didn't know when that might change. Priya drew in a breath, paused, and then asked, “Wh- Where did I die? And... um... how?”

[Theo Crowhurst]

Theo gave her a penetrating look, as if measuring her for how prepared she was for what he had to say. She had asked, however, and the Englishman wasn't in the habit of softening his blows. “You were killed during an illegal rave, in an abandoned warehouse,” he informed her, tone deceptively calm as he delivered grim news. “It was ritualistic in nature, someone developing their technique.”

Now, with hindsight, Theo could see the clear link to the murders through the years. Maybe their first, but at least among the first. It lacked a few of the hallmarks in the newer crime scenes, but some things stayed the same. Some digging had allowed Theo to fill in the gaps that hinted that Kanupriya was their kind of target.

[Priya]

Captured by Theo's intent look, Priya was very still with tension, practically a static image as he explained. At first his words were met with quiet, a tense thoughtful noise as she chewed them over. Then, as they filtered back through her mind, the implications began to register one by one, and her eyes widened with horror.

Killed during an illegal rave sounded bad, of course, but she didn't react to that immediately. After all, it didn't even sound like her. What was she doing at a rave? Perhaps, in life, she was a little more adventurous. Then, the concept of a ritual, someone perfecting their technique, that's when it hit her. As might be typical with the appearance of a spirit, the temperature around them dropped slightly in tandem with her heart.

Priya didn't know what a ritual was, save when she caught snatches of conversation from the boys, or between Max and his stuffy girlfriend. It existed for her only in concept, and a very vague one at that. She understood what this meant, though, and she didn't take it well.

“So, I was murdered,” she gasped, her voice thick with emotion. She'd joked about solving her own murder with Max without knowing she'd actually been ritualistically sacrificed. Priya pressed her hand over her mouth to stifle a small sob, tears rolling down her cheeks and disappearing into her shirt. “Why? What was it for? Why did they do it- Technique, what- Do- do you know?”

[Theo Crowhurst]

Theo could feel her reaction in the air, the sudden chill as the temperature dropped. That was the tricky thing with ghosts, it got so bloody uncomfortable to hang around them if something upset them, and there was a whole lot that could. Being dead, for one. Theo didn't comment, only rubbing his hands together to generate some warmth as he watched her process. He looked away as she cried, offering her some privacy.

He looked back when she spoke, asking him a string of questions. The usual why's and what's, but even Theo only thought he had an idea. “I haven't managed to confirm it, but your case matches the pattern of a string of murders in the years since you were murdered. Half-blood targets, murdered in a ritual sacrifice.” Theo spoke calmly as he presented what he'd come to suspect, but couldn't know for certain. Ritual killings weren't all that common, in reality, so the current slew of them all felt connected, even ones that possible weren't. “Those murders are linked to what we believe is some manner of death cult.”

[Priya]

As Theo spoke, his tone measured and calm, Priya forced herself to breathe. She didn’t need the air, but the motion came with difficulty, like she was trying to steady her breath after sprinting. By the end of his explanation, she simply sounded raw, although she felt like a stone was sitting on her chest.

It was fortunate timing though, her thoughts catching up with what he’d just said. They suspected a death cult, and all of it sounded in present tense. She was part of a string of murders by a singular entity. “They’re still around?” she asked, soft but intent. Her eyes lit up with a kind of meddling interest Theo might recognize. A spirit stir up quite a lot of trouble if they put their mind to it, and Priya was of a mind to find her killer. She was not, however, particularly graceful at getting more information. She wrung her hands in her lap, swallowing before she added, “What- what else is there about them? That you know?”

[Theo Crowhurst]

Theo was partly expecting the ghost to pop out of existence. He could see the pressure building, likening it to fabric pulled taut and the fibres finally giving in and unravelling, the physical reality losing its grip on her. Or perhaps a better simile would be a bottle about to pop. Too much pressure and whatever held her together would crack.

But it didn't happen. The ghost held her shape, kept her wits, asking an innocent question that turned up the pressure in Theo's own mind. The frustrating years where they inched along, dancing to the cult's tune without getting closer. Even in his frustration, he didn't miss the look in her eyes, and both things made a frown settle on his face.

“They're a death cult, from what we can tell. We only connected the murders a few years ago, when they got overzealous,” Theo shared, although he'd much rather not. This was all common knowledge at this point, so there was little use in his hiding it. “We've put pressure on them over the past year, they're on the back foot.”

And yet they still couldn't get at the leadership. It seemed each group they took down worked more or less independently, with dead drops or anonymous apps establishing infrequent communication. The people they wanted to get were frustratingly out of reach.

[Priya]

The shadowy image of a faceless, elusive organization bloomed in Priya's mind's eye. Dark menacing figures looming over her, but like mist, unable to be touched or captured. Out of reach, even for the living. However, this wasn't as disheartening as it should've been. Theo represented something resembling a lead, even if Priya hadn't come into this conversation looking to get back at her own murderers.

She didn't miss Theo's frown, picking up on the forbidding bent to it, but it didn't stop her from saying, “I want to help- Can I- Can I help? I want to.” She wished she sounded more confident, but her speech had the same energy as a fluttering bird. Still, she leaned forward, hopeful. A part of her expected a 'no', and knew it would be devastating enough to route her, but the thought of helping would stick with her regardless.

[Theo Crowhurst]

Theo regarded Priya with an inscrutable expression, a frown still gracing his face, as she tentatively asked if she could help. So far, his impression of the ghost was of a being barely holding on, buzzing in and out like a bad signal, if only by the way she'd called him, her conscious self coming forward only to fade. He wondered if she could hold it together to be useful. If she'd do anything other than spook the cultists. Not, he thought, in a way that might be traced back to the Exchange, at least.

So his initial response, even though he kept to it himself for the moment, was not the flat no anyone else might have got. Ghosts, after all, could not die. There were other ways of dealing with them, more disturbing than death, but nothing in the cult's MO implied they dealt in spirit trapping. If anything, the spirit was what they didn't care about, they wanted life.

“Do you think you'll be present enough to help?” Theo challenged, measuring her response carefully.

[Priya]

If her mouth could've gone dry from nerves, it would've then. Priya's lips parted, her tongue sneaking out to wet her bottom lip, before she rallied and insisted, “Yes-” Then she brightened, trying to think of something to prove her point. “Actually, I- I've, um- I've been in fights before.” That had to offer some credibility, although she neglected to go on and detail these fights, instead just nodding eagerly.

She supposed it helped when people she cared about or didn't want to see hurt were in danger. Priya stopped thinking about herself and her nerves long enough to deal with the problem.

[Theo Crowhurst]

There was a moment where Theo thought she might crack, too nervous to engage directly even if she might be useful in more indirect ways, if a liability if she kept fading out. He was at the point where he'd take her help anyway, but she seemed to recover a second later, an insistent yes before she brightened like she'd just remembered something. Other fights, apparently.

“And these fights went well?” Theo further tested, his expression implacable even as he rapidly took in her reaction, response, and his evaluation thereof. He wanted to hear her own measure of her ability, even if he was willing to take the risk anyway.

[Priya]

Theo's inscrutability was doing work on the spirit. A consummate people pleaser, she was constantly looking to him for cues, and the lack of them was getting to her. Her spirited response didn't last, and she began to fidget, suddenly trying to divine what Theo might define as 'well'. She'd gotten the tar beaten out of her, but her opponents had come out worse, as far as she could tell.

But was that a fight gone well?

“Well, um,” she muttered, making the mistake of looking away and leaving herself blind to Theo's reaction, if any. However, she couldn't bring herself to look back at him yet. “I suppose- yeah? I- won the fights. Except-” She absolutely had not won anything while sneaking into Max's dream. And the creature outside the gala? No, not at all. “Well, most of them, yeah. But uh- Sometimes I went with the tried and true 'run away' tactic.”

[Theo Crowhurst]

Theo tilted his head and watched her as she began with an 'um' that didn't inspire much confidence in him, eyebrow arching, but she continued rather than let it stall her out. She went on to say she'd won the fight, interrupting herself to correct herself, but there was nothing too worrying in what she said.

“I won't deny that's sometimes the only solution,” he offered, expression smoothing into something friendlier, rather than his searching and shrewd expression from before. “Do you remember everything, from these fights? No memory lapses?”

[Priya]

The sensation of relief that washed over Priya was visible to the naked eye. Her shoulders dropped, and the lines in her face smoothed. A bit of her color seemed to come back, although not in the sense that her skin had lost blood. The specter had paled as a whole under Theo's scrutiny, and it was almost imperceptible until she regained a bit of her saturation.

She smiled too, although it was fleeting and nervous. It surprised her to hear that Theo thought that was a sound strategy, when she'd just written herself off as a coward. But, she focused on the question. “Yep, no. I mean- no gaps or anything.” She waved her hands as she sought her words, a fidget rather than trying to form any shape in particular. It was her turn to let her stream of consciousness form a question to volley back, “Do you- Are you fighting a lot?”

Priya was aware that she'd introduced the topic, to illustrate that she held up under stress, but Theo's focus on it had her wondering about his encounters.

[Theo Crowhurst]

Dealing with spirits was always strange and it took a while to get a handle on the individual quirks they had. The way Priya slowly faded to then come rushing back. Theo could only guess at the reason, connecting it to her visible relief. At his reassurance that running was fine? Possibly, or maybe she was just relieved he wasn't coming with some nonsense about calling her a coward. It wasn't as simple as the brave and the craven if that had been what she'd been thinking. Theo didn't ask, leaving it to just his speculation as she turned the question onto him.

The Englishman couldn't help the huffed laugh at being asked if he fought a lot. He bowed his head briefly, clasping his hands before he looked back up, fixing her with a sardonic grin. “Far more than I'd like, but yes, I do a fair bit of fighting myself.”